He mentioned he wanted to donate it to the fire dept. so the can do a controlled burn.

I got burned bad on a rental property in Baltimore. 

Of course they were burned and some damage done in the kitchen.

I am still waiting to see if a duplex burns down does it get rebuilt to sfh and then re-convert to dueplex or will it be rebuilt to duplex status ???????

If the whole thing burns to the ground and I’m left with just an empty lot, I wouldn’t necessarily care to rebuild, I could just take cash value and walk away without a loss.

I got burned in 2005 when I bought at the height of the market so I would love for the shoe to drop and prices to fall.

Its way easy to burn through 30K.

Think of prices now vs 5-7 years ago.I like Dave Ramsey, too, but long-term fixed residential mortgages aren't what burned him. 

We got burned once, so now we use the holding deposit. 

The first time I flew out to Cleveland I had cash in hand (actually the bank) and was ready to deal.... silly me.... thinking I would be taken seriously out there.... apparently too many agents have been burned by tire kickers from out of state that are “cash buyers” that end up doing nothing.